Ginny Otte

Here's my kids! They took this picture as my Christmas present, because that's what I asked for--evidence that yes indeedy, they were all in the same place at the same time!

This is the first year in 25 years that I am NOT making this stuffing. If you make it you will be cursed: you will like it, your family will like it, and you will be forced into cutting hundreds of chicken gizzards & hearts by hand for decades to come.

My ex's mother came up with this. It's probably better than the turkeyitself so make it, don't bake the turkey, and just put a bowl of it in front of you while you're watching TV Thanksgiving day.

Stuffing

about 6 - 7 pounds of gizzards & hearts
2 slices bacon, finely chopped
3 slices deli ham, finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
the leafy part of 2 sticks celery, finely chopped
about 2 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
about 2/3 stick butter
Italian style bread crumbs
about 4 - 6 envelopes chicken bouillon powder (to taste)
salt & pepper to taste


Clean gizzards and hearts. Look at each gizzard and make sure there is no yellow-green part on the outside of it; if you find an odd one, peel it away and discard. It's easy and pulls away like a sheet of plastic, so just yank it off. Then put gizzards and hearts in a large stock pot. Cover with water and bring to a boil, cover the pot. Simmer for about an hour and a half, until the meat is cooked & tender.

Let it cool to room temperature. Do not drain; you will be using the water for gravy.

This is the hard part--I've been doing this for over 20 years, and I have never found a gadget that will do what needs to be done; so, at this point have a seat, grab a knife and slice the gizzards and hearts into thin slices. Discard the gristle in the middle of each gizzard. If you're fast, this will take about an hour.

You can then either continue on to the next step, or if you did it ahead put the gizzards back into the water and stick it in the freezer until the night before.


To make stuffing:

Chop the onion, bacon, ham, parsley, & celery leaves. Melt butter in a pot and put in the chopped ingredients. Sautee until the onions start to turn clear (but not brown). Add the gizzards and hearts and stir. Add a about two cups of the water and simmer; you are going to be cooking down the liquid until it's about half. While this is happening put in three of the bouillon packets and a little pepper; add more of the bouillon and a little salt, until it tastes the way you want it. Remember the Italian bread crumbs have a little salt in it too, so don't make it TOO salty.

Once the liquid is reduced to about half (or a little less than half) slowly add in bread crumbs until the mixture sticks to itself and has the texture of stuffing. It's going to be about a cup or less, if you reduced the liquid enough. Taste the stuffing one more time to see if it's not bland--if you need to, add another bouillon envelope or some more salt.

Let it cool off enough to handle. Wait until just before you put the turkey in the oven--this is IMPORTANT, as you are putting warm stuffing into a raw turkey; you don't want Salmonella for Thanksgiving! So just before it's time to put the bird in the oven, stuff the bird. You will have enough stuffing to stuff the cavity and the flap of skin by the neck of a 22 - 24 pound bird. Stuff the bird, tuck the legs in and tuck the wings under the bird to hold the skin flap you stuffed closed. season the top of the bird & put it in the oven. If you have any leftover stuffing set it aside and warm it through before you serve dinner; since all of the meat is cooked already, you can eat it without stuffing it into the bird (but it does impart a great taste to the turkey as the bird cooks).

Use the reserved water as a base for gravy.

Thank you.

Here's a picture of my son's rack from last year, when he graduated from BMT:


...and here is a picture of my daughter's rack, when she graduated from boot camp this week:


Pictures of both are available at my gallery; I also uploaded new pictures of Jen over at my Facebook, if that's where you normally catch up with me.

Yesterday I work up at about 4 am after a fitful night's sleep, saw off my daughter at MEPS, went home and awaited the phone call that she arrived. I knew it would be short, stressful-sounding, and that I would only have time to say "hello" and "ok."

At about 1:30 am, after I gave up on hearing from her and started dozing off--after being awake almost 20 hours straight--I got the phone call:

"MA'AM! RECRUIT SANCHEZ WISHES TO INFORM YOU THAT SHE HAS ARRIVED SAFELY...(unintelligible screaming into the phone from a script) DO NOT WORRY ABOUT ME (unintelligible screaming from a script) *click*

...I said OK, but she probably didn't hear it. She sounded stressed, tired, and disoriented.

Welcome to Parris Island, kid. :)

After a long, LONG-assed week at work which comprised of 10 - 14 hour days, endless amounts of work, everything that had to be done 10 minutes ago and no seeming end in sight....I'm FINALLY ready for the holiday weekend.

...and best of all, The Boy lands tomorrow afternoon, so I get to see my son this weekend!

So in a way...I'm not really going to rest after this long week, just switch activity. From radio, to COOKING.

If I don't check in with the blog this weekend, don't panic. I'll be doting on my son while he's here. And I won't even ask him to mow the lawn.

Well, it's time to post to ginnysanchez.com what many of my closer online friends already know about.

After 25+ years of marriage (26 come September) I am now separated. I post this fact, because I might mention something about the day I had, or whatever--and it would be awfully confusing to a website visitor who was unaware that I'm in the process of starting over. I'm sure this may be a shocker for people who have been reading for years, as I've not really ever posted about any discord, distance or trouble between my husband and I. I never did that, because some things just aren't for public consumption. Despite the fact that I swear like a trucker, I do have a little class when it comes to respecting the privacy and feelings of the people around me.

I'm not going to hash out things here online, or discuss highly sensitive, personal things (I never have before and I'm not about to start now); just know that the Ginny you know and check in on from time to time is now (for all intents and purposes) single. However, if you comment in the blog, please note:

I do not welcome bad comments about my husband. I do not wish to be offered support at the expense of the guy who I grew up with, who fathered all of my children and who was there for a quarter of a century. One day, we're going to be grandparents. When that happens, I don't want to go visit those grandkids only on days that he won't be there. We're treating each other in a civil, friendly manner, remembering that we do have three children, we do have a long history and we don't actually hate each other. We're just different people than we were, and it's time to move on.

That said, take comfort in the fact that I get custody of the blog readers. However, I can't get support payments for you all.

I went to my daughter's Spring concert today, and it was very nice. The teacher retires this year, and this is her final concert. She estimates that she's taught over 10,000 students in her 30+ year careet--a career that she began in mid-life; she didn't graduate college until she was 35.

The students, and past students surprised her with a song, directed by a former student, and the pianist is a current student:


The concert was great with the exception of the AV kids, who talked (to the camera people via mic) through the entire thing; I thought at first that I heard them because I was so close to them, but I saw people from the middle of the auditorium shooting glares that way. I hope their chatter doesn't make it to the DVD. X-p

We found out that if we fly out of Philly, the ticket prices are like HALF OFF what they'd be through any other carrier going to Newark. This carrier, Southwest, does not appear to even fly into or out of Newark.

So: Son, Mom & Dad will both see you in 4 weeks.

I wish that I was actually talking about the weather--but no, I have a cold. I feel like I was run over by a truck--a stuffy nose truck.

Someone kill me and put me out of my misery.

I think part of it, was all the damn moving around we've been doing recently--the 24 year old moved into the room vacated by The Boy when he left for BMT. My living room is overrun with boxes. I am now the not-so-proud owner of a chinchilla (my 24 year old's pet). I told her to buy Chili the world's largest cage to make him happy--hell, buy him a play pen with a screen roof--but to never, ever let him roam the house free like she did when she lived in the apartment.

So far, so good. I know Chili's been properly housed because if he was running free...Google (the Yorkie) would have been running after it until his heart exploded from excitement. (chinchillas are much faster than Yorkies. Google would never have a chance at actually catching it).